Michael Morrisey served as Executive Director of CEF from 2007-16.
The smell of freshly cut grass, the crack of the bat, hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jacks and cotton candy — it is that time of the year.
The dream to make a big-league roster. The dream of another division championship is on every Kansas City Royals baseball fan’s mind. A player’s dream to lift another World Series championship trophy. The “field of dreams” we are all looking for.
The dream to be at spring training as the boys of summer officially start the 2016 baseball season. Selfishly, those could be my dreams.
This article is about dreams — “a dream is a wish your heart makes.”
Our CEF dreams are not baseball-related. Rather, our dreams are focused on low-income families yearning for a Catholic education. Students currently in our Catholic schools dreaming to return for another year if only scholarship funds were available. Many children currently not in our Catholic schools are dreaming for that same opportunity.
This is the time of the year when the Catholic Education Foundation finalizes our schools’ scholarship budget numbers for the 2016-17 school year. We at CEF dream a lot as we look into our scholarship crystal ball.
Our dream is for every child who seeks a Catholic school education to receive that opportunity, regardless of his or her financial circumstances. This is our “field of dreams.”
Once we provide a scholarship for a child, we are committed to sustaining that individual (assuming it is good for the student as well as the school) for 9-13 years (kindergarten through high school).
So, at this point in time, our average commitment to our CEF kids is $13,000 per child for each of our 1,400-plus scholarship recipients. If you do the math, that equates to $18,200,000 over a 13-year period!
Dream on!
Currently, our principals have identified an additional 395 kids ($5,135,000 for 13 years) that want to attend our Catholic schools, but are not given that opportunity because of the lack of resources!
I am sure you will attest that in each of our lives we have experienced both good and bad dreams. I have oftentimes said a certain experience is like “a bad dream.” The same can be said for our CEF families. When it comes to their kids and Catholic schools, the recurring bad dream for many is not being able to send their kids to one of our Catholic schools!
Dream on!
I am a dreamer and (along with baseball) I am a Walt Disney fan as well.
“A dream is a wish your heart makes.” Have faith in your dreams and someday your (Catholic education) rainbow will come smiling through . . . If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true!”
Dream on!
